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(This post is part of a Times Union project looking at local government structure and cost. Click on the “Small government, big cost” tag on the right rail of the Capitol Confidential site to see charts, graphics and related articles.)

By JIMMY VIELKIND
Capitol bureau

ALTMAR — The formal public hearing to discuss the dissolution of this tiny fishing village in Oswego County lasted 12 minutes.

The Village Board and consultants from the Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research took a few questions about updating the map of cemetery plots and sprucing up sidewalks before residents become responsible for their maintenance.

Although Altmar, about 145 miles from Albany, could become the first to dissolve under a new law, fewer than a dozen residents of this 407-person village came on the syrupy July evening. The meeting was shrouded less in a sense of history than exasperation.

“I don’t like talking about it. I’m sick of talking about it,” said Bryan Myers, the dissolution vote leader.

“I hope this all goes through. It’s going to help all of us if we do it,” he said. “We all become one, we all pay the same amount of tax.”

His frustration is one shared by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who since 2009 has suggested that stripping away layers of local government in New York — he estimates there are 10,521, including towns, villages and special taxing districts — will be key to keeping rising property taxes in check. He repeated in July that the state needs government consolidation “now more than ever.”

But his administration has so far not made it a central priority: Cuomo is instead relying on a law, which he pushed for, that changed the process for citizens like Myers to dissolve local governments.

It hasn’t borne much fruit. Nine petitions for village dissolution have been brought under the law in the past two years; eight have been voted down. Altmar is the lone exception.

As other heavily governed pockets — including Capital Region villages like Green Island — weigh consolidation or dissolution, Altmar’s experience shows what stands in the way.

First, there are the root causes. Myers, 56, admits what many village residents said: His efforts to dissolve the village are rooted less in a zeal for lower taxes than a longstanding dislike for Mayor Corey Holcomb, who he described as leading a “clique” that controls the village fire department. (Holcomb was on vacation during the July 6 public hearing, and for a month did not return calls.) Myers sees the fire department as the village’s principal function: The Town of Albion takes care of road maintenance, and neither has a police force. The department covers the town, which in turn funds 84.9 percent of its budget.

The village also provides for street lights, which brings up a second issue in the current process: If you strip away one entity, you often have to create one or more replacements. Jeff Haber, executive director of the New York State Association of Towns, said that while Cuomo has derided so-called “special districts” — which have led to abuses on Long Island and elsewhere — they can be “a very useful tool for town government that helps the town by not charging people who don’t receive the service.”

This means Altmar residents would still pay a bit extra for the street lights — 86 cents for every $1,000 of home value, according to the CGR study. And if they desire additional services — say something formal for the cemetery — they could set up districts. A representative of the Tug Hill Commission offered to help them do so.

But that might mean higher property taxes. The CGR study estimates that dissolving the village will save $36,540 per year, most of it in personnel costs, including $5,600 paid to Holcomb and the village trustees. Legal and study fees related to the consolidation, paid by state taxpayers, run $75,000.

Under the Cuomo law, state taxpayers will also send $58,006 in “Community Empowerment Tax Credit” funding when the dissolution is approved. Assuming all the funds go to reduce property taxes, with the separate lighting assessment included, the tax rate in the village will fall from $9.72 to $5.37 per $1,000 of value. Town residents outside the village will see their tax rates fall from $4.99 to $4.51, the CGR study predicts.

But that assumes state support, which is guaranteed only in the first year. Without it, town taxes will rise to $5.21 per $1,000, and village taxes will be $6.07. The nebulous savings, especially in comparison to the high costs to the state, have stoked critics of Cuomo’s dissolution push.

“The savings is in single digits, 4 to 6 percent. So, are we willing to save 3, 4 or 5 percent and lose control of the services residents need to a larger government that may not be as responsive?,” asked Peter Baynes, executive director of the New York Conference of Mayors, which lobbied against the law. “That’s the danger of having a vote before you study it.”

Under the law, citizens petition to dissolve their government, and if enough valid signatures are collected, a vote is held. There is no study, no guarantee that services will continue, and no details on the tax impacts involved. CGR only got involved after Altmar residents voted to dissolve, by the narrow margin of 80-74, in November.

Before passage of the law, village officials were responsible for developing the plan. The practice was often abused, according to a study of dissolution by Lisa Parshall, a professor of political science at Daemen College in Buffalo. Seeing those abuses, the law shifted — but the results have not been good.

Kevin Gaughan, a Buffalo attorney who has preached the virtue of less local government, calculated there are 439 elected officials in Erie County who, to his thinking, soak up salaries and slow progress. Last summer, he brought three referenda under the new law to dissolve the villages of Williamsville, Sloan and Farnham. All three failed.

“The Albany protectors came, looked at it and crafted a very clever counter-narrative: How can you possibly vote for something for which there is no specific plan?” Gaughan said. “The unfortunate outcome in the change of the law is an opportunity for opponents to make this fear-based argument. I don’t think that can be overcome until we can put the sequence back in its original way.”

Deputy Secretary of State for Local Governments Dede Scozzafava has been presenting options for dissolution as part of a statewide tour. The state has dispensed $30.5 million in government efficiency grants of all types (dissolution, consolidation) since 2007, and while she’s aware of the problem in the law — and its failure outside of Altmar — Scozzafava said its mere existence has prompted municipalities to think more about saving money than they otherwise would.

“Change isn’t easy for anybody, and it’s especially not easy for municipalities … but the time has come,” Scozzafava said.

“You might not get consolidation or dissolution right in the beginning,” she said. “ … Hopefully what we’ll have at the end of the day are more efficient government entities that will hold the line or decrease property taxes.”

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